Leaks from water pipelines that can occur in a building, whether residential, commercial, or institutional, are highly undesirable. Over time, leaking water can be a significant and unnecessary expense. Moreover, water leakage from a broken or leaking water line can cause severe damage if left undetected for too long a period.
The prior art teaches numerous methods and devices for detecting a leak in a piping system and then automatically shutting off the supply to the piping system in order to minimize the waste and damage caused by the leak. However, heretofore the prior art approaches are generally insufficiently reliable, too complex, or too expensive to be effectively utilized in many applications. Accordingly, there is still a long felt need in the industry for improved approaches to detecting a leak in a piping system and then automatically shutting off the supply to the piping system in order to minimize damage caused by the leak.